Items tagged with NASDAQ:MSFT

It’s Happening! The word on the street is that Windows 10 is complete; it has hit the release to manufacturing (RTM) stage, which means that hardware OEMs around the globe will soon be loading the final version of Windows 10 onto machines shipping at the end of this month. Microsoft first announced Windows 10 in late January (however, the operating system’s development dates back several years), and has gone through a lengthy public testing phase which has been made easier with the help of thousands of Windows Insiders. The final RTM build of Windows 10 is 10240, which is quite a big leap from...Read more...

Microsoft’s takeover Nokia’s Devices and Services division has been nothing short of a disaster. The company is axing 7,800 employees from its phone division and is writing off $7.6 billion in costs related to last year’s $7.2 billion acquisition. “We will need to innovate in new areas, execute against our plans, make some tough choices in areas where things are not working and solve hard problems in ways that drive customer value,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella when announcing the drastic measures he took with regards to Microsoft’s smartphone operations. “In the longer term, Microsoft devices...Read more...

Nokia is down, but not out. The Finish telecom company has been planning a way forward after a stunning fall from grace (similar to that of BlackBerry) as consumers turned away from inexpensive cell phones to smartphones running Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems. And, like BlackBerry, Nokia said this week that it is planning to revive its phone business and is looking for a manufacturing partner. The move follows a dramatic few weeks in which Microsoft threw in the towel on its efforts to make the company’s purchase of Nokia’s phone business into a viable venture. The...Read more...

Early last month, Microsoft starting revealing more details about its impressive Surface Hubs, which are designed for use in business conference rooms. The massive touch screen displays are fully-functional Windows 10 PCs complete with 100 points of touch, Intel Core processors, and SSD storage. The 55-inch Surface Hub has a display resolution of 1920x1080 and a price tag of $6,999. The 84-inch Surface Hub comes with a 4K display and will set businesses back a whopping $19,999. Pre-orders for both Surface Hubs began on July 1 and Microsoft promised that units would begin shipping in September....Read more...

While nothing Microsoft has planned can likely top the Rolling Stones kicking off the launch of Windows 95 — Microsoft reportedly paid the Rolling Stones $3 million to use the song “Start Me Up” in the advertising campaign — the company is hard at work revving its engines to heavily promote Windows 10 later this month. Windows 10 will become available starting July 29, but the company will begin heavily promoting the operating system in the United States July 20. On that date, Microsoft will begin running its first TV and online ads promoting the successor to Windows 8.1. Microsoft indicates that...Read more...

We’re eagerly counting down the days until the retail launch of Windows 10 (the operating system launches on July 29, by the way). First announced in late January, Windows 10 aims to right the wrongs of Windows 8.x while ushering in a new era of computing devices that work in harmony across smartphone, notebook, convertible, tablet, desktop, and console platforms. Since the official launch is so close that we can almost taste it, it should come as no surprise that a fresh leak has given us a look at what the retail boxes for Windows 10 will look like. The images, which were uncovered by Winfuture.de,...Read more...

Windows 10 can’t get here soon enough. We’ve been hearing about the downturn in the PC market for years, and things haven’t gotten any better in recent quarters. With Windows 10 less than three weeks away, IDC has released its PC sales figures for Q2 showing that the industry witnessed a year-over-year decline 11.8 percent to 66.1 million units. "Although the second quarter decline in PC shipments was significant, and slightly more than expected, the overall trend fits with expectations," said IDC’s Loren Loverde. "We continue to expect low to mid-single digit declines in volume during the second...Read more...

Games publisher Ubisoft raked in significantly more revenue than anticipated during its fiscal first quarter ended June 30, 2015. According to the company's financial report, sales came to €96,6 million (around $107.9 million in U.S. currency), as opposed to its previous forecast of €80 million (around $89.4 million). The bulk of those sales came from PlayStation 4 gamers. Ubisoft broke down its sales by platform. Sony's PS4 topped the list by accounting for 27 percent of all game sales, more than double the Xbox One at 11 percent. It was also more than double of any other game console, as both...Read more...

After releasing three builds in just one week, Microsoft took a bit of a breather over the weekend. However, Microsoft is once again back on the move with the release of Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10166 which is now rolling out to those on the Fast ring. “Thank you to all of our Windows Insiders who have given us terrific feedback and helped us shape Windows 10,” said Microsoft’s Gabe Aul. “We’re getting close to release now and the whole team here is working hard and incredibly excited!” As was the case with the three builds delivered last week, Build 10166 is all about “bug fixing and fit-and-finish.”...Read more...

Microsoft’s $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services division has been a disaster of epic proportions. Microsoft brought over most of Nokia’s employees into the Microsoft fold, only to jettison many of them over the past year. The culmination of this Nokia culling occurred this morning with the announcement that Microsoft is axing 7,800 employees, primarily from its smartphone division. To add insult to injury, Microsoft is taking a $7.6 billion impairment charge on its $7.2 billion Nokia purchase. Youch! There’s just no way to sugarcoat this unfortunate turn of events, but Microsoft...Read more...

There’s a lot of positive energy flowing through Microsoft these days. The company by all accounts won E3 with the unveil of a new 1TB Xbox One console, a swanky new “Elite” wireless Xbox One controller, and backwards compatibility support for Xbox 360 games. And we can’t forget the July 29 release of Windows 10, which is the highly anticipated follow-up to Windows 8.1. However, there are also a few dark clouds heading towards Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington headquarters and they are zeroing in on the company’s smartphone division. Microsoft today announced another round of job cuts, this time...Read more...

Microsoft announced name changes for its Xbox music and video features this week as part of its overall effort to create a familiar experience for users across all devices when Windows 10 launches. The Xbox Music app will become Groove, while Xbox Video will become Movies & TV. In a sign of just how Windows 10-centric things have become in Redmond, the updated apps will first be available in Windows 10 and then roll out to other devices.Xbox Music will receive more than just a name change. Groove will have an updated user interface and better support for keyboard, mouse, and touch navigation....Read more...

Microsoft has been busy kicking out Windows 10 Technical Preview builds at a furious pace as of late (three releases in a week, including two that came on subsequent days), but what we haven't seen is a Release To Manufacturing (RTM) candidate. Until now, that is. It appears that Build 10176 is the first RTM of Windows 10, though it may not represent the final product that ships July 29.Traditionally speaking, RTM releases are those with finished code in need of a bit of last minute testing before going gold. However, there are still two weeks left before Windows 10 is set to ship to the public,...Read more...

Windows 10 Mobile is destined to land sometime later this year (Microsoft hasn’t given us a definite date, only saying that it will land some time after Windows 10’s July 29th debut), and it can’t come soon enough. Microsoft’s smartphone market share has been stagnant in the sub-five percent range for quite some time with no signs of improvement. The latest U.S. smartphone market share numbers from comScore so no signs of improvement, and in fact show an even further slide for Microsoft’s Windows Phone smartphone operating system. For the three-month period ending in May, Microsoft’s market share...Read more...